West Suffolk NAS December News

Welcome to all our new members. We currently have 370 members.

On Saturday 12th December, the West Suffolk Branch hosted their first autism-friendly Christmas party. Having consulted with children on the autistic spectrum and their siblings about what they would truly enjoy at a party, we planned the event to include a computer gaming room, craft activities, non-competitive games and plenty of chocolate. Father Christmas sent a cuddly-toy representative rather than attending himself, and the children could choose their own present from him from an unwrapped selection.

Ninety-seven people attended and it went brilliantly. It was lovely to see so many children with autism and their families able to relax and enjoy such a big party. Parents had a chance to chat and share tips of their own, and brothers and sisters were able to play together and have fun without having to cope with meltdowns!

We’d like to say a big thank-you to all at New Life and to Mark at AM Television for lending us super flat screen televisions and to E3 for the loan of games consoles – the children had so much fun with them all.

A special thanks to all the committee members and other volunteers who contributed to the preparation and for supervising activities at the party. The time and effort put in by everyone resulted in a terrific experience for all.

If anyone would like a copy of the National Autistic Society’s ‘Guide to the Festive Season’, which is full of helpful tips and strategies, please e-mail the West Suffolk Branch at westsuffolk@nas.org.uk, and we will send you one out – very useful if you are expecting visitors over the festive season who may have a limited understanding of autism.

The next autism-friendly cinema screening, which will be ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks – the squeakquel’ at 10am, Saturday 2nd January, at the Hollywood Cinema, Bury St Edmunds.

The teenagers and adults with autism group is meeting at the Friends Meeting House (Quakers), St John’s Street, Bury St Edmunds, on Tuesday 26th January. 6.30-7.30 is for teenagers with family members and carers. 7.30-8.30 is for adults and carers. We have also booked the X-box gaming area and the music gaming room at Portal Gaming, St John’s Street, Bury St Edmunds from 6.30-8.00 on the same date for any teenagers, adults or carers who would like to have a go. Gaming costs £3 per person. You can either go straight to Portal Gaming or meet at the Quakers and then walk up to Portal Gaming from there. Children from 12 upwards are welcome at the teenager group.

Sudbury Drop-in Café
The next dates are Thursday 14th January, 11th February, 11th March and 8th April. The cafe is open to people of all ages and meets from 9.30-11.30 at Number Seventy Two, 72 North Street, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 1RF

Campaigning
If you log onto Dont Write Me Off you can easily send a Christmas message to your local MP reminding them of the needs of adults with autism as part of the NAS ‘Don’t Write Me Off’ campaign.

Fundraising
We have just been informed that West Suffolk branch of the National Autistic Society has been chosen as one of the community charities at Waitrose, Bury St Edmunds for January. Please encourage friends and family to post their green tokens in our box if they are shopping there.
If you know anyone who would like to support our branch by having a few friends round for tea at home or even at work, please get in touch. The NAS has launched an appeal called FestiviTea. We think most of our members would rather do this after the Christmas rush. The idea is to send any money you raise to us at WSNAS, 43 West Road, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 3EN. We will keep half of it for the local branch and send half of it to the regional team of NAS. For further information please visit www.festivitea.org.uk (or a leaflet is enclosed with postal newsletters).

May we wish you all a peaceful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. We look forward to catching up with you again in 2010!

Christmas 'Party'

Saturday 12th December 2009 11am - 3pm The Hyndman Centre, Hospital Road, Bury St Edmunds

As we all know, Christmas can be a very difficult time of year for families with a child or children on the autistic spectrum, with all the anticipation, changes of routine and challenging school and social events that it entails. It can be especially tricky for families who also have non-autistic children who would like the full festive works, or families who have friends and relatives to visit who have limited understanding of their autistic child's needs and sensitivities.

With this in mind, we are hosting an alternative, autism-friendly, Christmas event for all our families, which we hope will be a relaxed and enjoyable day out for children on the spectrum and fun for their brothers and sisters too. We hope that as many of you as possible will attend, either for the whole day or just for an hour or two, so that lots of our children can experience a Christmas event that they can cope with and hopefully really enjoy! There is no charge at all for this event, as we don't want anyone to feel that they can't afford it at this expensive time of year.

Please could you reply to this e-mail by 30th November so that we can finalise plans for it very carefully around the number and ages of the children who will be there.

This will definitely not be a conventional Christmas Party!

We have booked the whole of the Hyndman Centre (which has on-site parking) for the day, so will be able to offer a good range of activities in the separate rooms, including a quiet room for those who may like to retreat for a while. Having canvassed opinions from children on the spectrum and from sisters and brothers, the activities we hope to offer will include:

Computer games room, which will include seating for the children to play alongside each other on their DSs (don't forget your charger!),

Arts and crafts activities for all ages and abilities,

Non-competitive games,

Graffiti table,

Lego,

Musical activities - these will be at specified times, in a closed room, so that children who don't like noise can easily avoid them.

There will be no balloons, no party poppers and no loud noises, apart from those made by the children themselves!

There will be plenty of visual menus to explain and help with all the activities. All the activity rooms will be supervised by a CRB checked adult, but please note that the party is not one where you drop off and leave your children. It will be a family event, and all children need to be accompanied by a parent or carer. Apart from safety issues, we are very much looking forward to meeting up with lots of members for the first time on the day.

Refreshments will be available all day, but please bring along your children's own favourite snacks/packed lunches.

The party will be decorated for Christmas, but we have decided not to invite the 'real' Father Christmas as he may be too frightening for many of our children. Instead, there will be a toy Father Christmas on a table, along with a letter from him apologising for not being there but inviting the children to help themselves to a present from him in the baskets beside the table.

We are really looking forward to seeing as many of you as can make it on the day - please could you reply as soon as possible, before the end of this month. The party is absolutely free to all our members, so we don't want to use hard-raised funds catering for those of you who can't be there.

Attached is a festive invitation to print out if you are able to come (the image at the top of the post) - we hope that it will help in preparing your child for the party.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Teen, Adults and Carers Drop-In

After a very successful first meeting we will be offering a drop-in session for teens and adults on the autistic spectrum and for carers to meet each other on Tuesday Evenings on the 4th Tuesday of the month.

The next few dates are Nov 24th, (no meeting in December,) Jan 26th, Feb 23rd, March 23rd, April 27 in the Margaret Kemp room, Quakers meeting house, Bury St Edmunds. Teenagers are welcome from 6.30 until 7.30 with a carer to accompany them and adults from 7.30 until 8.30.

During the adults session there will be the opportunity to go to The Bushell pub if you wish to. You are welcome to drop in and say hello at any time. If you have specific needs that you would like us to know about before the evening, please let us know by e-mail to westsuffolknas@google.com or by calling our branch mobile.

First Ever Autism-Friendly Firework Display Raises Money For ‘Children In Need’!

Members of the West Suffolk Branch of the National Autistic Society had a great evening at Britain’s first ever autism-friendly firework display last Saturday.

The display was organised by the Branch as part of the Suffolk Kite Flyer’s annual ‘Light Up The Sky’ fundraiser for ‘Children In Need’. They were delighted to raise over £200 for such a good cause as well as enabling their members to enjoy a fun and friendly outdoor event. For many families this was the first time that they had been able to attend a fireworks event, as mainstream displays are much too noisy, crowded and unpredictable for people on the autistic spectrum.

The West Suffolk event was very carefully planned to minimise these discomforts – the fireworks were visually beautiful but very quiet, and were set off according to an illustrated printed timetable. The airfield was arranged so that people could watch the display from the security of their own cars if they so wished, and the Branch had ear-defenders available for those worried by noise or the wind. A softly lit tent was on site, where three young members sold popcorn and novelties to help the fundraising effort.

The West Suffolk Branch is planning to develop the idea further and hopes to make this an annual event and huge thanks must go to the Suffolk Kite Flyers for all their support and the Firework Emporium in Ipswich for all their advice and the many free fireworks they donated

Email Problems

We are using this e-mail account as a temporary measure as the WSNAS account, has been out of action for a fortnight. We have no idea when it will be working again. If you have sent e-mails to us recently and not had a reply please write again here at westsuffolknas@googlemail.com and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Low Noise Firework Display

Hope to see many of you at our first low noise firework display as part of the Suffolk Kite Flyers ‘Light Up The Sky’ this Saturday 24th October at Rougham Airfield.

Please consider ear-defenders for members who are particularly sensitive to the wind or to noises, we are able to loan a small number of these. We have selected a range of low noise fireworks so there will be no loud bangs, but there will be crackles and few whistles.

Gates open at 6.45pm and we will be there until 8pm. The fireworks will start at 7.30. Please bring a minimum donation of £3.50 per person if you are able to, as this all goes to support Children in Need.

If you would like to see the fireworks in advance, the Firework Emporium who have donated many of the fireworks free of charge have video clips on their website.

The running order will be as follows (click the name for the video link):

Dancing Diamonds

GreenPeace

Brazilliant

Spin Doctor and Whip Wheel

Dancing Diamonds (again!)

Sound of Silence

Fantastic Voyage

We will be providing a timetable for people to use on the night. If you would like to see it advance it can be downloaded from here: Firework Timetable

Autism Act 2009

Today we have made legal history! The Autism Bill has made it through its last parliamentary stage, and will now become the Autism Act 2009: the first-ever disability-specific law for England.

For more details - read this > http://www.autism.org.uk/autismact2009